Monday December 7, 2015 marked a historic day for China and the world but not the kind of history to be proud of. China issued its first-ever Red Alert for the city of Beijing, this is first time they had raised the alert to its highest level since an emergency air-pollution response system was announced in 2013.

A recent study conducted by researchers from various universities in the United States and Mexico have concluded that carriers of the apolipoprotein e4 allele gene (APOE4) showed significant decrements on attention and short-term memory when exposed to air pollutants (including PM 2.5) above the current USA standards. APOE4 is the most prevalent genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. The estimated APOE4 gene in Caucasian population is 13.7%, while estimated population with Alzheimer's that carries the APOE4 gene is 36.7%.

All Aretas sensors have the ability to support geotagging for sensor readings. Every reading stored in our data center also has a field for geotagging. Even if each data point's geotag is not populated, the sensor location is also stored separately and correlated with the data output. Coupled with timestamp, geo tag (x,y,z) and sensor value, all available dimensions are queryable for analysis and visualization.

Numerous fixed station sensors can be visualized in 2-D, output from moving sensors can be tracked and visualized (in 3-D) and data can be queried geographically.

Many people are not aware that human respiration contributes significantly to elevated indoor CO2 concentrations. Ambient CO2 levels outside are approximately 395 PPM. (this level fluctuates throughout the day / year, but is usually within 10-20ppm of baseline). When people are indoors, the exhaled CO2 does not disperse outdoors fast enough and accumulates within the building.

We've been testing the new Aretas Wireless Radiation sensor in Mackenzie BC which is in Northern Canada. We have been performing radiation detection and measurement testing indoor and outdoor ambient levels and doing spot tests throughout the area. Aretas's new sensor primarily detects beta, gamma and x-rays (some sensitivity to alpha sources has also been tested, but is not offered at this time). The general detector sensitivity is 5.9 cpm/μSv/h. The sensor also features internal temperature compensation and linear response over a wide temperature range (-30C to +50C).

It is well established that forest fires can contribute significant amounts of CO2 and particulates (as well as other combustion byproducts) into the atmosphere. However, high baseline atmospheric CO2 levels are commonly associated with high population areas such as cities (which have high amounts of vehicle traffic and industrial emissions).

Hog Fuel Pile Fires are a relatively common occurrence in the mill and biomass fuel industries (as well as any industry that stores and maintains hog piles). Hog Pile Fires are difficult to extinguish and are extremely costly. Part of the predicament in preventing hog fuel pile fires is due to the fact that the internal temperature of the pile can reach combustion temperatures via composting effect alone and there are few external signals visible prior to combustion.

We recently had a very happy client contact us to share a great success story using our ice arena solution.

Monitoring at a Steamboat Springs, CO ice arena protected employees and the public from high Carbon Monoxide and Nitrogen Dioxide levels. The Howelsen Park Ice Arena received a notification of high-levels of CO exceeding 120 ppm.